Carpe Diem

By: Wor. Jason Eddy

I was watching a movie with my kids this weekend, the title of which is not relevant, and the following line struck me: “That wasn’t living, that was just not dying. There’s a difference!”. The words resonated with me and I found myself lying in bed that night thinking a bit about what it meant, and where it can be seen.

How many reading this blog can say that, regardless of how successful they are in the application of it, attempt to live each day to the fullest? How many seek to not only maintain, but to improve life for themselves and others? How many can say that they are working each and every day to make the most of not only today, but ensure that the future is bright as well? I would suggest that the answer to all three questions is “not enough”. Make no mistake, I am guilty of living according to the Tread Mill method on many days, perhaps sometimes even for weeks at a time. However, seeking to change that trend can only result in a positive. As this blog is primarily Masonic, I will focus this line of thinking in that context.

Stories abound of Lodges that exist only to open, read the minutes, pay the bills, and close quickly so that they can retire to the dining room to eat the same meal that they have had after every meeting since being chartered. These same Lodges are often filled with Past Masters who, with great passion, cry afoul when any type of change is proposed to the Lodge. “There is no INNOVATION in Masonry!”, they will cry. “We have done it this way for years with no problems!”, they proclaim. To this, I would suggest that the proposer ask the following questions. “Is this Lodge truly living its purpose in Masonry? Or is it simply not dying by maintaining the status quo?” Too many Lodges exist. Too few Lodges are living. Though many approaches can and should be taken to communicate this message to the Brethren, it is important that they be able to answer the question “Is this Lodge living its purpose in Masonry?” in the affirmative. Either they are seeking to improve themselves, their Brethren, and therefore society as a whole, or they are simply a drone in the hive of Masonry.

Harsh? Perhaps. Let me be clear. I am not advocating one approach to Masonry within the Lodge to another. I am claiming that Lodges should be “living” and not just simply “not dying”. If your Lodge experience is far from meaningful, then seek to change it! If your sole purpose for meeting is to read the minutes, pay the bills, and close the Lodge, then seek to make it about more. An attentive ear is hard pressed to make it through any conversation concerning the current state of the Craft without hearing about the dwindling membership. Normally it is followed by an explanation about competing priorities, internet, televised sports, work commitments, etc. prevent men from coming. To that I say the following. The problem is not that men are too occupied with work, smart phones, video games, family commitments or anything of the sort. The problem is that we are not offering them anything that can compete with those things. Now, aside from one’s family (which in my eyes is first priority regardless), there is nothing in that grouping that should be more enticing to a man that to be a part of something as sacred and as special as Masonry. To participate in timeless rituals, cloaked in secrecy, filled with allegory and symbolism, all seeking to instill ancient wisdom to the participant is something that should trump almost anything! Yet they do not come to the Lodge. Why is that?

The answer is simple. Too many Lodges are simply “not dying”. They are not “living” Masonry! They rush through the degrees as if they are simply a box to be checked. They encourage minimum proficiency because “men just do not have time for memorization and study”. They spend meetings bickering about bills, arguing over minutes, and closing quickly only to come back and do it all over again. This is not Masonry. When men come into Lodge, they want something special, something sacred. They do not leave (or fail to ever join) because they are not interested in Masonry. They leave (or fail to join) because they ARE interested in Masonry and have not found it in the Lodge.

Take notice, Brethren. Masonry is not a box to be checked. It is not something that you have to “get out of the way” so that you can drink coffee and eat off of paper plates in the dining room. It is not something that can be taught or experienced by utilizing minimum proficiencies. Masonry is a timeless system designed to impart wisdom and improve men and the societies in which they live. It is our duty to treat it as such. So with that, I will ask the following questions to the reader: “Is your Lodge living its purpose in Masonry? Or is it simply not dying?” If it is the latter, what are you going to do about it?

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Of My Own Freewill and Accord

By: Robert G. Davis, 33*, Grand Cross

                                Hand Door Knocker- (C) Julius Eugen 2007

I’ve always been curious about the peculiar practice in Freemasonry that no man may be asked, invited, or solicited to enter the fraternity. It is an organizational feature almost unique among societies. In fact, organizations with the most select membership are those which receive no applications, but select and invite their candidates. The no-ask/no-tell canon has been a rule of immemorial standing in the fraternity and, yet, it is impossible to determine when it originated. There is nothing concerning it in the Gothic Constitutions, nor in any of the rules and by-laws of the old lodges, or in the Constitutions of 1723; nor is it discussed by any of the Masonic writers of the 18th Century. There is nothing in the ritual on the subject. The “candidate interrogatories” written by William Preston asks only that the candidate affirm he comes to Freemasonry unbiased by an improper solicitation. And yet, we know that men of noble rank were solicited to become Grand Masters, though they were not Freemasons and had to be initiated just for that purpose.

So, all this begs some questions--if we come to Freemasonry by our own free will and accord, in what way are we free? Masonically, what does it mean to be free men? Is this freedom important? Once we enter and take on the commitments and obligations of our fraternity, does this make us less free?

Perhaps there is something to be learned by reflecting on the meaning of being free men in the context that Freemasonry is a “system of morality veiled in allegory.” These three words, “system of morality” may be at the core of our understanding of being free-men, or free-masons. Certainly, these words would be a reason why we should insist that all men who join us do so with complete freedom. Freedom is a condition sine qua non for joining an order based on morality.

That a person enters of his own free will and accord means that he is a man free from all prejudices and attitudes which are not based on his own self examination; that he is prepared to judge all attitudes, including his own, with intellectual integrity; that he is free and ready to make a moral judgment and to defend it even when he is in the minority or under strain for holding such a view; and, even more important, that he is aware he must place limits on his own freedom if he is to insure other men the same right to theirs.

There is a thin line between being free and being just; between dividing one’s obligations with one's rights; in self-censoring our own freedom as a result of recognizing another has the same right to his own; that the moral norms of one country may be different in another, yet both right; that the majority recognize the minority’s point of view and that the minority accept the right of the majority to bind all by its decisions. One becomes morally free only when his individual independence is balanced by intelligent choice.

To be moral and to act in accordance with moral values requires the ability and readiness to judge between right and wrong, between what is in conformity with prevailing norms and what is not. A moral choice can only exist if it rests on choosing between two possible alternatives; and this choice has to be made with complete freedom and with no coercion of any kind. A man determines his sense of morals only when these are put to the test. If the choice he makes is made under coercion, there is no moral value in his choice.

To be a Freemason means we possess fundamental moral attitudes which are based on constant self evaluation and re-evaluation of every aspect of our life. The opening charge to the Master Mason in the 4° of the Scottish Rite is worthy of our contemplation. “Freemasonry is an institution seeking human happiness through tolerance and love; self-perfection, glorifying justice, truth and equality; fighting tyranny, ignorance and prejudices.”

To achieve this definition means that every Brother must approach free objectivity in his moral choices. We may think of freedom only in a sense of being free from restrictions or limitations. However, this is perhaps the lesser freedom. The freedom to act according to our freely-made moral choices and convictions is what makes us true Freemasons.

Are we less free as a result of undertaking such commitments together as Brothers? I think not. In fact, we have chosen of “our own free will and accord” to be committed to certain moral values.

To me, this is a true expression of being free.

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Mediocrity in Masonry . . . Shame on us!

By: Robert G. Davis, 33*, Grand Cross

One of the questions that occasionally eats at me when I am driving home from a Masonic event, degree, or function that has been woefully mediocre is how our members can sit through such Masonic happenings month after month and still believe our fraternity is relevant and meaningful to men’s lives? How honest are we in claiming we make good men better while persistently repeating practices and behaviors which are so distinctively average, or worse? Self improvement involves some form of positive change. It requires some level of progress; entails some elevated sense of being. Explain to me how a lodge facilitates self improvement by offering its members a venue that doesn’t “feel” any different when they are inside the lodge than outside of it.

Perhaps many of us come into Masonry looking for nothing more than fraternal association. But, if that’s the case, it ought to be the best fraternal association we have ever had!

Once we encounter the preparation room, or make our progress through the degrees, it is hard to dismiss the awareness that we are engaged in something wholly different from our other community experiences. We quickly learn that Masonry has a higher calling which requires that we make an ascent into the very center of our being.

An endeavor of such high importance and due solemnity is not a run of the mill undertaking. It becomes clear there is nothing mediocre about Masonry. So why do we make it that way?

Here’s the problem. Accepting mediocrity in our lodge practices is the same as living a mediocre life. By making un-extraordinary acts and behaviors our ordinary practice, we entrap ourselves from knowing how precious life really is. We don’t use opportunities that come our way as a means of expressing how special we really are. Instead, we walk the walk with the rest of the herd and soon find ourselves in such a deep rut of limitations we lose sight of our own value. We become trapped in mediocrity.

Regrettably, this too often seems the condition in which lodges, Scottish Rite Valleys, York Rite Chapters, Councils and Commanderies find themselves. When nothing extraordinary, educational, insightful, compelling, intellectual, contemplative, spiritual, or fraternal occurs in our private, sacred, fraternal spaces, then we become only another ordinary, average, run of the mill, dime-a-dozen organization. It is hard to see how this kind of Masonry takes good men and makes them better.

It is not the kind of Masonry we should want to share with our friends.

I believe that if we truly want to move “from the square to the compasses,” we have to dare to be different. And we can’t dare to be different by following someone else’s expectations. When a lodge does the same thing year after year, it is accepting by default someone else’s expectations. There is nothing creative, inspiring, or different about parroting ritual, paying bills, and going home. That’s doing only what many others have done before us.

To distinguish ourselves among men and organizations, we first have to perceive in our own minds that we have something to do which will ultimately set us above the average. We start by thinking about the choices before us.

Do we choose what is safe rather than what is right? Do we only do things right, or do we do the right things? Do we set out on a new path, or take the same old, comfortable way? Do we bring credit to our teachings, or debit them as ideals of the past? Do we become the examples that young men want to emulate, or do we seem to them as just another group of ho hum guys?

You see, the choice always controls the chooser. To be exemplary men, or an exemplary organization, we have to be exceptional in our awareness of who we are, what we are here to be doing, what we know, and how we practice what we know. We have to have the courage to be different from the rest of the crowd—nobler in our expectations and more refined in our state of mind.

Because that’s just the way Masonry is.

He who wants milk should not sit himself in the middle of a pasture and wait for a cow to back up to him.

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Thank you for reading The Laudable Pursuit!

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